Have some time for reading? Today portions of 15,000 pages of documents were released following litigation by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, Center for Constitutional Rights and Cardozo Immigrant Justice Clinic, seeking documents from federal agencies related to the voluntariness of “Secure Communities,”.

Yesterday, I wrote on how some of the documents showed that the Department of Homeland Security was being purposely deceptive regarding if local areas could opt out of the program and how the program is slated for expansion under Obama’s 2012 Fiscal Year Budget. Today looking through some of the documents (and no I haven’t made it through all 15,000 pages), many of which are emails, we see that the “message” told to localities was that “opting out ” was not an option when it really may be. It also seems that I.C.E. was especially concerned about major cities, like my own NYC, opting out because of controversies, i.e. how the NYPD already has a huge racial profiling problem and the huge immigrant population in NYC.

I really recommend taking some time to read the documents. Just reading a few of them has my mouth agape at the blatant attempts at the federal level to manipulate local governments into adopting Secure Communities.

Mala’s Note : Originally I had written that all 15,000 pages had been released and that is not the case. Only a portion of the documents have been released. That correction is reflected in title change and edits to original body text